On sports, pop culture, and other important matters, in Philadelphia and beyond.

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Met Their Match

THOSE OF us worried that we'd have to invest precious time in following the Phillies over the season's second half owe a debt of gratitude to the Mets. The flawed New Yorkers have come into Philadelphia and easily taken the first three games of the teams' four-game set, ensuring that the best the Phils can do after all is said and done is lose two games in the standings. Dropping tomorrow's finale, of course, would result in a four-game plunge and allow the Mets a large measure of retribution for the sweep Philadelphia improbably pulled off a few weeks back at Shea.

The Phillies have been exposed as the pretenders they've been all along. They'll blame it on injuries, as they always have, but the truth is that too much of it is their own damn fault. Without the ruinous free-agent signings and dreadful trades of seasons past, there might have been some minor-league depth capable of holdings things over until good health returned. And along those lines, I can't help but wonder why the Phillies suffer a more onerous string of debilitating injuries than their opponents do, year in and year out. Is it a failure to do due diligence on the physical status of incoming players? Or is the training staff as incompetent as the squad's senior and field management? Regardless, the last 36 hours have made clear that the playoffs are the ultimate pipe dream for Phils fans, and for that we are forced to swallow what little pride we have left and thank the Mets, of all teams, for demonstrating that so vividly.

3 Comments

Indeed, the playoffs are a "pipedream" for this current cast of misfits. Sure Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels, and Jimmy Rollins are playoff quality, but the other members of the crapfest bring them down.

Tom is right as rain, as usual. Injuries will be blamed, instead of management errors again. Here are Gillick's biggest additions over the winter:

Wes Helms
Rod Barajas
Freddy Garcia
Mark Eaton

I mean, come on. All predictably terrible acquisitions, roundly criticised at the time, and all turned out very badly. Gillick's been an unmitigated disaster. They're still way below league average at third, catcher and overall OF, just like when he arrived. Signing Gordon to replace Wagner hasn't worked. He's lucky he inherited Cole Hamels, or there'd be no ace, and the major league-level starters he's added since he took over are:
Ryan Franklin, Jamie Moyer, Freddy Garcia, (all exMariners!), and Mark Eaton. Only Moyer's any good, and he's 106 years old and could unravel at any time. The bullpen is brutal.

It's hard to gauge, especially since I don't live in Philly anymore, but I think they would have fired Cholly if they had lost today. Of course, John McGraw couldn't win with Wes Nunez and Abe Helms at third.